Spotlight on Greek Mythology films:
The Giants of Thessaly (1960, Italy/France, Riccardo
Freda)
Jason and the Argonauts (1963, US/UK, Don Chaffey)
Troy (2004, UK/Malta/Bulgaria/US, Wolfgang Petersen)
300 (2006, US/Canada/Bulgaria, Zack Snyder)
Immortals (2011, Canada/US, Tarsem Singh)
The Return (2024, Italy/Greece/UK/France, Uberto Pasolini)
The Odyssey (2026, UK/US/Canada/New Zealand/Iceland,
Christopher Nolan)
This is not a comprehensive look at all adaptations of Greek
mythology movies but instead focusses on a few films based in Greece with some
overlapping material. This criterion meant I opted to not include The Coen
brothers’ O Brother, Where Are Thou? (2000) even though it is a
very creative adaption of Homer’s The Odyssey but it is set in 1930s
America.
Few common elements linking the various films:
1. Odysseus and his journey
The Return and The Odyssey overlap
the most as both follow the same core story although The Return,
as indicated by the title, only focuses on Odysseus’ return and doesn’t focus
on the journey itself. The final 30 min of Nolan’s film overlaps quite a bit
with Pasolini’s movie. The difference comes down to dramatic depictions.
Troy overlaps in content with both The
Return and The Odyssey as Odysseus features in the film
and his journey is talked about. However, Troy is more about Achilles
and Odysseus is a key character on the periphery and shown to be a mentor to
Achilles.
2. The Trojan war
The trojan horse and gruesome slaughter that follows unites
both Troy and The Odyssey. The Return
doesn’t show the Trojan war but the war is talked about, and its scars leave a
deep impact on Odysseus like that shown in The Odyssey.
3. Golden Fleece
The Giants of Thessaly and Jason and the
Argonauts are closely linked as both films are about Jason’s pursuit of
the Golden fleece.
4. Peril filled journeys: cyclops, sirens, Hydra,
giant statues and the dead
Jason’s peril filed journey in both The Giants of
Thessaly, Jason and the Argonauts overlaps with events
depicted in The Odyssey as all three films show the main
characters going from one adventure to another. The cyclops is featured in both
The Giants of Thessaly and The Odyssey while the 1960
film also shows how Sirens convert men into animals but that man-animal
transformation is shown vastly different in Nolan’s film. Jason
features Hydra, gigantic bronze statue of Talos, skeleton crew while Nolan’s
film shows dead soldiers but in a different form than the skeleton crew in Jason.
5. CGI enhanced war
300 and Immortals are about
completely different events, The Spartans and the Battle of Thermopylae in the
case of 300 and the story of Theseus, Hyperion, Olympians and the
Titans in the latter. Yet, both films look the way they do thanks to a heavy
dosage of CGI. Each film gets a completely digitally enhanced makeover which
makes the visuals stand out. However, the difference in visuals and lighting
gives clue to the director involved. 300 is an early Zack Snyder
film and the darkly lit visuals in the film have been found in Snyder’s later
films as well. Tarsem Singh has made visuals a cornerstone of his films from The
Cell (2000) to The Fall (2006), so it isn’t a surprise
that the visuals in Immortals look like paintings brought to
life. The colour palette in Immortals isn’t eye-popping
bright like Tarsem’s other films but the pop of colour stands out when used,
such as the shining gold against white, grey or darker shades.
6. The Gods watch
Jason and the Argonauts and Immortals
both feature the Gods watching over the humans and trying to not interfere in
the humans’ war until certain threshold are crossed. In Jason,
the Gods interfere to keep the journey going to amuse themselves (as per Zeus)
while in Immortals, the Gods can only interfere once the
Titans are released.
Immortals has a very creative way to show
the Gods-human transformation and it works in the film’s visual context and is
the only film in this Spotlight to feature such a transformation.
Ranking all films in order of preference:
These films highlight how a material changes depending on
what character’s perspective is used. In the context of the material, there
really aren’t any “good guys” to speak of. All the characters, no matter which
kingdom or army they belong to, ruthlessly kill and slaughter their opponents without
remorse. Some characters eventually show remorse with the passage of time and a
personal tragedy. Even that remorse is a cinematic choice meant to depict a
traditional narrative arc of a character’s growth. However, in each film, we
are still given heroes to cheer for. That is commercial cinema in a nutshell which
is where all these films fall under although The Return keeps its
scope tight and isn’t a purely commercial film.
1. The Return (2024, Uberto Pasolini)
This film edges slightly to first place only due to its narrow
scope. By focusing only on the actual return of Odysseus, the film feels more
humanistic and away from myth territory. The emotions of the characters truly
come across and a large part of that is due to the acting brilliance of Ralph
Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. It is a treat to see the two actors in a film
again and this material is a long way from the days of The English
Patient (1996) and Wuthering Heights (1992).
2. The Odyssey (2026, Christopher Nolan)
3. Troy (2004, Wolfgang Petersen)
4. Immortals (2011, Tarsem Singh)
5. Jason and the Argonauts (1963, Don Chaffey)
This is a highly watchable film and still stands the test of
time despite being released almost 6 decades ago (59 years). The stop-motion animation used in the film by
Ray Harryhausen is still a reference point in discussing evolution of
visual effects in films.
6. The Giants of Thessaly (1960, Riccardo Freda)
The film freely mixes elements from various Greek myths including
The Odyssey and is effective for its 1960 release date. This is also the
first film out of these 7 to be released and was released three years before Jason
and the Argonauts.
7. 300 (2006, Zack Snyder)
All style and no substance.
